How Unfortunate

     Page Two Hundred Forty-Five.
     A few weeks ago in this blog I mentioned that I'd decided to put myself on care.com in hopes of finding a new nanny position. I filled out the application, getting, according to them "71%" done.  I paid $60 for a background check, wrote my experience, posted my photo, lined up some references and so forth. Everything I posted to my bio was properly approved by the company.
     A female co-worker who'd gotten work through them encouraged me to post myself on this website as she thought they'd beat a path to my door what with my resume and all. In fact, a few people in the recent past encouraged me to do it. I'd assumed any agency would laugh at me 'cause I'm a male. "No, go on and do it. They'll love you 'cause of all your experience", everybody said.
     So last Friday, I applied for my first job, watching a newborn and a toddler - part-time, a job I feel very confident about. Later in the day, I received an e-mail from care.com saying that they'd dismissed me, with no reason given. In this "form letter" they said that it's their right to dismiss anybody at any time, and they'd inform anybody who I'd been in contact with that they'd let me go. What in the world?
     I knew it! I assume what happened is this mommy received my e-mail of interest, saw I was a guy, freaked out, assuming I was a child molester and contacted the company. That's all I can guess. If this isn't sexism I don't know what is. Society just refuses to think that men can watch children. And by society, I mean modern-day mommies and daddies. I don't care if they claim to be on the political left or right, the vast bulk of modern-American parents flatly refuse to acknowledge any possibility that men can care for children as much as women can. That disgusts me. 
     Further more, I can't tell you how many adds I saw that said "must love kids" right in the add. Why would anybody need to put that in a nanny-wanted post? I don't get why anybody would pick a profession like child-care unless they adored children. I think that's one of those jobs that someone wouldn't even approach without a very strong care-giving personality profile already in place.
     How unfortunate that people think that males are only able to do certain jobs and females are only able to do others. With no overlap. And we think we've come so far.